Administering a medicament by injection is a process which presents a number of risks and challenges for patients and healthcare professionals, both mental and physical. Improper handling of medicament delivery devices may result in needle stick injuries. EP 0 903 158 B1, US 2009/0069753, and EP 1 567 215 discuss devices for coupling a needle assembly to a medicament delivery device. However, in any situation in which a patient or healthcare professional is required to manually attach/remove the needle assembly, there is a risk of needle stick injury.
In addition, manually attaching the needle assembly to the medicament delivery device can lead to over-tightening, which can result in injury when removing the needle assembly and/or structural damage to the medicament delivery device. Attempts to remove an over-tightened needle assembly can adversely affect other components of the medicament delivery device (e.g., in a reusable device, a cartridge holder may be loosened).
Thus, there is a need for a device for safely attaching and removing a needle assembly to/from a medicament delivery device.